It is the last bus home. A 17-year-old girl was killed Monday and 35 other passengers injured, seven of them critically, when a double-decker bus overturned in Hong Kong. The bus, which some witnesses said was speeding, toppled onto its side on a roundabout as it traveled from Hong Kong's Central district to the Kowloon district shortly after midnight. It was "so fast I did not even realize it was flipping over," said one. Some passengers had to be cut free by firefighters from the wreckage. Seven were critically injured and the 17-year-old was declared dead when she arrived at hospital, a police spokesman said. Police said he passed a breathalyzer test. In addition, another victim is confirmed dead on November 12. From what I read from the newspaper, the bus driver claimed he had to turn because he tried to avoid a splash of oil ahead of him. But the witness said he didn't found anything on the road when he volunteered to help and called the police. A little boy's head was severely injured that his father can see the bone. The Standard
I'm not suggesting that this may have happened, but plenty of times (esp in New York), bus drivers late at night will try to finish their "run" early so that they can then sit back in the depot (station) and lounge around on their asses watching TV or sleeping. I suppose that bus drivers around the world (including HK) would be under similar circumstance or work environment pressures. I suspect that the driver here too, may have wanted to complete his route run quickly, and as there was little traffic, drove faster than was safe, ultimately losing control of the vehicle. At any rate, it's a damned shame.
some drivers just want to rush for leisure time, this one here doesn't cus she can read while driving:
Double Storey bus has that danger in them with the high point of gravity, and speed along the curve can easily flip the bus over
For the average city street, it's great for being able to serve a lot of people, where the max speeds are often limited by dense city traffic. Once on the highway however, where they can speed up, those things are inherently risky to drive and I've read once that even experienced bus drivers get fooled by how little leeway there is before it tips over. Like you stated, a lot of this has to do with the higher center of gravity and the physics involved with inertia in turns. What makes this even worse is the passenger habit of preferring to sit on the upper deck, thereby exaggerating the effects of the high center of gravity.
